A few years ago, I visited Caen Hill locks near Devizes for the first time. The steep flight of locks is one of the iconic sights of Wiltshire, so when I heard that my friend Matt’s parents were bringing their narrowboat down the flight, I volunteered as a deck hand. I’ve never operated a lock before and to bring a boat down a flight of 29 locks in one day was a baptism of fire. Lots of winding (the sluices) and pushing/pulling (the gates). Still, there was plenty of tea on hand and we traversed the flight in a few hours.
These pictures were taken on Ilford FP4+ film using a Canon AV-1 camera. All were taken with the Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 lens except the final pictures of the flight, which was taken with the Canon FD 135mm f/2.8.
Jonathan Gazeley 